Footwear Insight - Business Report Quarterly

T he technology behind counting people has been the mainstay of Traf-Sys' business since 2001. But much has changed about the importance of the process and where it is utilized over the last two+ decades. At its onset, the Pittsburgh-based company was largely focused on helping entities count people in malls. Where did they eat at the food court? What stores were visited and where did they ultimately make purchases? e process, using both hardware and soware, is called stereoscopic image processing. It identifies human beings by head and shoulder combinations, without taking any video or photographs, during specified time periods. Today, Traf-Sys' automatic services and technology are utilized in a variety of places, ranging from casinos, airports, and auto dealerships to banks, hospitals, and libraries. But retail, including small specialty shops and lifestyle centers, remains a principal focus. Retailers need productive stores and traffic measuring helps them reach that objective. Traffic is a KPI (key performance indicator) that entities need to improve the performance metrics of their operation. For retailers, that can range from tracking conversion (what percentage of people who visited the store bought something) to the effectiveness of a promotion and how the store should be staffed during key days and timeframes. e use of people counting systems eliminates the need to rely on anecdotal feedback from a store manager or associate, who sometimes can paint an outstanding picture of the day's traffic flow but at other times may lack accurate feedback due to their management responsibilities. "I know that some retailers are making hard decisions today about what stores to close, open and such, and they use our soware to determine traffic just hasn't been good at this location for a long time," says Chris Wadsworth, president of Traf-Sys. e company creates affordable packages for its smaller partners, including retailers, for less than $1,000 annually. at price includes the price of hardware and an annual subscription fee of a couple of hundred dollars. Retailers have the option of providing their sales transactions data confidentially to Traf-Sys. ey can generate reports or use an advanced programming interface (API) to obtain traffic counts from the tech vendor to plug into their own business intelligence platform. Larger retailers with their own IT departments generally generate their own comprehensive KPI reports while most smaller players rely on assistance from Traf-Sys. Besides conversion analysis, reports detail traffic in relation to staff hours and other areas such as the conversion impact of a special promotion or advertising. "When we first started in this people counting business, the hardware was probably 80 percent accurate in terms of traffic," remembers Wadsworth, who adds the soware has been consistently updated over the years along with the metrics it compares, contrasts, and measures. "Today, the accuracy of the system is at 99 percent." Traf-Sys, which does business in Canada, Europe, the Far East and Middle East besides in its home market, has a network of installers across the U.S. to help new business partners onboard. But some programs can also be self-installed and remotely calibrated. n INSIDE TRAF-SYS footwearinsight.com Q2 July 8 2024 ~ Footwear Insight Business Report Quarterly 23

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